The present invention relates to snap fasteners for brake disk wear pad plates. More specifically, the present invention relates to brake disk wear pad plates which are attached to opposite sides of a brake disk core and are releasably secured together through various types of snap fasteners located on the brake disk wear pad plate.
Heretofore, metallic brake wear pads generally have been secured to the opposite sides of a brake disk core through rivets. Although the rivets provided a good connection during operation, extensive time and effort was required to remove the old worn pads and install new pads. The usual replacement method involved drilling a hole through the rivet, punching out any remaining rivet material, inserting the new wear pad in place and riveting the new wear pad to the brake disk core. This procedure was timely and hence costly. Additionally, the rivet itself which is generally large, that is, about 1/2 inch in diameter, took up wear pad space and thus wasted a portion of the wear pad as well as shortened the life thereof.
A variation of the rivet connection is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,920,108, wherein a rivet having a head mechanically engages a recess in a wear pad lining cup. Another embodiment of the patent relates to a projection on the wear pad lining cup which is welded to a similar projection on an adjacent wear pad lining cup. In either situation, these connections are essentially rivet connections and still require the drilling of a hole through the connection in order to remove the worn wear pads.